San Francisco's Cesar Chavez Street is set to become Las Campesinas, Spanish for "female farmworkers." A working group convened by Mayor Daniel Lurie's office announced the pick on Tuesday, Oct. 20, and District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder introduced an ordinance the same day to formally rename the 3.2-mile street, Mission Local reported. Supervisors Rafael Mandelman, Shamann Walton and Myrna Melgar joined her.
Why it matters: The street runs from the Bayview waterfront through the Mission to Noe Valley and crosses three supervisor districts. A new name means new street signs and new addresses for every home and business along it.
How the name was chosen
The renaming effort followed New York Times reporting this spring that Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers leader who died in 1993, sexually abused women and girls for decades, including UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta. A 27-member working group, co-chaired by Assessor-Recorder Joaquin Torres and former Supervisor Susan Leal, narrowed the options to two in September: "Si Se Puede" and "Las Campesinas," SFist reported. One of the group's rules was not to name the street after a single person. Huerta herself has said streets and schools should not be renamed for her.
Residents submitted 668 comments online, and the mayor's office said "Las Campesinas" led by a significant margin, according to Mission Local.
"San Francisco's Latino community and the farmworker movement have shaped this city, and this vital artery should continue to honor that legacy," Lurie said in a statement.
The working group said the name honors women "who continue to work our fields, raise families, organize their communities, march on picket lines, endure harrowing conditions, and suffer in silence through sexual abuse and harassment." Torres said the group wanted "the labor movement and the farm worker movement" reflected in the final name.
A second renaming in 31 years
The street was called Army Street until 1995, when the Board of Supervisors renamed it for Chavez. Leal led that effort as a supervisor. Opponents put Proposition O on the November 1995 ballot to restore the Army Street name, and it failed. Some current signs still show "Army" in parentheses. SFist reported that the new signs are not expected to keep Chavez's name.
What happens next
The change won't be quick. If the full Board of Supervisors passes Fielder's ordinance, the Department of Public Works will review it and seek comments from property owners on the street and from the planning, building inspection, fire and police departments. Public Works then sends a resolution back to the board, and a new ordinance is drafted and voted on, Mission Local reported. No date for new signs has been set.
It's one of several Bay Area changes since the allegations. San Jose is weighing a new name for its downtown plaza; see our story on Plaza de Cesar Chavez. There has been no word yet from the school district on Cesar Chavez Elementary in the Mission.